SYDNEY • Qantas Airways expects to get back to flying 100 per cent of its pre-pandemic domestic capacity by January as Australian state borders reopen amid surging vaccination rates, the airline's chief executive said yesterday.

"It looks like by Christmas, we will have every state open except for Western Australia, and Western Australia will open up domestically, hopefully, early in the new year, we assume around February," Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said at an industry conference held by Flight Centre Travel Group.

Travel restrictions between Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's largest cities, eased on Wednesday as Victoria opened its borders to fully vaccinated residents from New South Wales amid a rapid rise in immunisation levels.

With cases trending lower in New South Wales, residents will be allowed quarantine-free entry into Victoria for the first time in more than three months. But travellers from Melbourne who wish to enter Sydney must undergo a two-week home quarantine.

Mr Joyce said Qantas has just one daily flight from Sydney to Melbourne at present, down from 55 before the Covid-19 pandemic when it was one of the world's busiest domestic routes.

"We will progressively in the first week of November go back to nearly 15 flights a day and by Christmas get back to closer to 30 to 40 flights per day and in February, when business comes back, to pretty close to the pre-Covid-19 schedule," he said.

The airline will resume international passenger flights from Sydney to London and Los Angeles on Nov 1 after New South Wales last week said it would permit the entry of fully vaccinated travellers without the need for quarantine, though only citizens and permanent residents will be allowed back in for now.

REUTERS